Copan Prize

The National Chamber of Tourism of Honduras, CANATURH has just issue the invitation to receive proposals for candidates to the annual Copan award, in its 2012 edition.

The award is specifically designed to acknowledge the efforts and achievements of entrepreneurs that have made a difference in the tourism industry in Honduras. The prize has two different categories, Individual, for individual persons whose effort, work, dedication towards developing sustainable tourism in Honduras has made a significant impact; and Institutional for larger corporations that have had the courage and foresight to invest in tourism in the country. The idea behind both categories is to insure that those who do not have the ability to make a large investment still have an opportunity of being nominated.

Copan Prize Award

The award is presented to the winner at a national gala dinner where the president of the country is usually present. In order to guarantee impartiality in the designation of the winner, nominations are received in a closed envelope and opened by a specially named committee that is formed by public and private sector authorities and representatives, usually members of the National Tourism Council. The proposals are reviewed and each juror then turns his comments and evaluation sheets to an auditor of Price Waterhouse Coopers, who in turn takes the evaluation sheets and tabulates the points of each nominee.

The three candidates in each category that have the highest marks are all notified and invited to the gala dinner, where an envelope with the winners name is opened personally by the president or his representative. The award is a public recognition to the efforts made and achievements met by the candidates, and diploma and a small statue with a design that was taken from the unique eccentrics, ceremonial artefacts found in Copan, hence the name of the prize.

This year the ceremony will take place in Tegucigalpa on the 28th of September. Proposals for candidates can be sent to Canaturh in Tegucigalpa to the attention of llagos@canaturh.org

Amongst some of the winners of the award in the past I can name a few (these are not the only ones)